Rising Love

Our Hearts Must Sing the Same Song

Camila had spent too much time doubting in the three years she had spent with Niall. 

They had found each other at a Farmer's Market, where he had been playing guitar and singing by the watermelon stand, singing some songs he had written himself. Camila had visited him at the market every weekend for about four months before she got the courage to talk to him after his set, as the vendors took down their booths and went back to where they had come from. 

 He had taken an immediate liking to her once she talked to him, and it just grew from there. The falling autumn leaves seemed to be a blossoming ground for love, moreso than any place or website Camila had visited, looking for someone. 

Their first date was on Halloween, carving pumpkins together at the house he rented out, laughing at the botched Jack Skellington carving that Camila had tried to pull off with only a pairing knife. They sat in front of the TV and watched horror movies afterwards, with Niall getting up when trick or treaters knocked on the door so that Camila wouldn't miss any good parts of the movies they were watching. 

Niall was a gentleman - there wasn't a way around the fact. Throughout all the time they spent together in the beginning stages of their friendship, he was content to just be near Camila, just happy to see her smiling. Unlike some other guys Camila had met, Niall was patient. He waited for Camila to make the first moves in their romantic relationship, when they had gone to get gyros by the dock, and she had kissed him on the pier by the fishermen. A few minutes later, someone's big catch, a mackerel of some sort, had landed on his face, but he didn't seem to mind.  His big smile was present until he dropped Camila off at her apartment that night. Needless to say, she didn't kiss him again until the next time they saw each other, but once her lips had finished kissing his, he told her that the wait had been worth it. 

They moved slowly. She had only moved in with him a few months ago, and only said they loved each other about a year and three quarters into their relationship. They had tried to make love shortly after, but even Niall admitted that the spark wasn't there at the time they tried it. 

That should have been the first red flag, Camila supposed. 

-

When Niall got the idea for the wilderness store in Southern California, Camila was nothing less than baffled. She had spent basically three years with this man, yet she couldn't fathom the sudden move on his part, from writing songs to selling hiking equipment. Even he had told her shortly before his decision that he was so close to a record deal, so much that he could almost taste it. People had been interested, his gigs were starting to sell out, and occasionally he would be recognized on the streets as a local musician.

The sudden shift to wilderness and business jolted Camila, and tilted the stage where she felt their romance was being performed on. When she first met him, she had fallen for the words in his songs first, not the look in his eyes or the gleam in his smile. And when he told her that night, after dinner, that he was quitting music? Without either of them knowing it at the time, Niall had just given up his relationship for a wilderness store. 

Camila was a girl who was looking for a moon, who sang to the tune that her heart was always playing. And by now, Niall had gotten lost in another song. 

As time passed, she stopped being the first one to say "I love you", and eventually, a few weeks after hanging out with Lauren, she knew. He wasn't her moon. And it was time to let him go. 

Niall sighed, like this wasn't all too unexpected. "I'm not upset," he said lacklusterly. "Just tell me something."

"Anything, Ni."

"Was this because of anyone else, any person who was in the equation without me knowing?" he asked the question calmly, depression dripping in his voice like he was Eeyore. He knew his now ex-girlfriend was pan, and she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was only asking to make sure there wasn't anything else he could do, not to make any sort of accusation.

Her mind drifted to Zayn and Lauren at the bakery. That cute guy at the office with the curl in his hair. She had no epiphany of any sorts - they were just friends, or acquaintances to her, as they had always been. 

She shook her head in response to Niall. "There was nobody else. I like you a lot, Niall. I just don't love you like I once thought I did. My feelings...I can say they faded. I'm just not sure if they were as strong as we thought they were in the first place."

He nodded, grimacing and trying to pass it off for a smile. "I understand. As long as you're happy." Then his eyes scanned the apartment, the mesh of both his and her things together, things that would take a few days to pack up. "Where will you stay?"

Camila thought for a moment, scraping her teeth over her lower lip as she formed a reply. "For now, in a hotel. Tonight I'll call a friend or two and see if they'll let me stay for a while. I can come here again once I'm settled somewhere, so I can help you pack."

"No, that's okay. I can do it." Niall says kindly, something twinkling in his eyes, but Camila can't tell what it is. "Just promise me one thing."

"If it's within reason."

"Find your moon. Find someone who deserves you more than I ever did. Just be happy for me, that's all I can ask."

Camila purses her lips for a second before breaking out into a sad smile. Niall truly was too kind for his own good sometimes. "Only if you do the same for me, Ni."

"I promise," he told her, helping her put two of her bags into the trunk of her car before she drove off, leaving that house for good.

-

That night, she finds herself drifting to one specific number on her contacts. The hotel isn't stellar, and the bed is already going to tweak her back, she just knows it. She looks at the number again and presses 'CALL'.

"'Allo?"

"Hey, Lauren? I was wondering if I could ask you something."